Combined broadcast and backchannel delivery of streaming content

ABSTRACT

Streaming content may be delivered through a combination of broadcast and a backchannel. A desired streamlet may be selected from the packet of information and presented with a display. A remainder of a data stream associated with the streamlet may be requested and received from via a backchannel while the desired streamlet is being presented. The remaining data stream may then be presented with the display.

CLAIM OF PRIORITY

This Application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/259,852, filed Oct. 28, 2008, the entire contents of which areincorporated herein by reference.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This Application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/399,846, filed Mar. 6, 2009, the entire contents of which areincorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF INVENTION

This invention relates to the delivery of streaming content, andspecifically to the delivery of streaming content using a combinedbroadcast and backchannel approach.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION

As digital multimedia accelerates into the mainstream, more and morepeople rely on this multimedia as a daily form of entertainment. Fromvideo clips to music videos to TV shows and movies, a wide range ofmultimedia can be found being accessed all around the world through theInternet, television, radio, etc. A common problem with accessing suchmultimedia, from the viewpoint of the user, is the relative speed withwhich receiving devices may stream content. Because receiving devicescommonly stream multimedia content from one source, issues concerningbandwidth and server capabilities may limit a user's ability to accessmultimedia at a fast rate.

With many countries mandating a change from the presentation ofmultimedia with an analog signal format to a new digital format, morebroadcaster-user systems have become available for users to obtaindifferent forms of multimedia. It is within this context thatembodiments of the current invention arise.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a combinedbroadcast and backchannel approach to the delivery of streaming content.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram illustrating the process of combined broadcastand backchannel delivery of streaming content from the perspective ofthe user of the receiving device.

FIG. 3A-C are schematic diagrams illustrating examples of packets ofinformation being broadcast by the broadcaster.

DESCRIPTION OF THE SPECIFIC EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a combinedbroadcast and backchannel approach to the delivery of streaming contentaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. A broadcaster 101may communicate information to a user's receiving device 107 through abroadcast transmitter 105 by way of a broadcast signal. In accordancewith an embodiment of the present invention, the information may becompiled by a computer processor at the broadcaster 101 or compiledelsewhere and relayed to the broadcaster 101. The information may thenbe relayed to the broadcast transmitter 105 in the form of a packet ofinformation 103 containing streamlets 1, 2, 3, 4.

As used herein, the term “streamlet” refers a portion of a larger unitof streaming data. By way of example, and not by way of limitation, eachstreamlet may represent a portion (e.g., the first ten seconds) of avideo or audio clip. By way of example, and not by way of limitation,the packet of information 103 may be configured to contain streamlets 1,2, 3, 4 of the most popular video clips being broadcast on the Internet.These streamlets are not sent in bulk, but instead are sent one-by-one,with the packet of information 103 repeating itself after each fullrotation of streamlets 1, 2, 3, 4 have been broadcast by the transmitter105. In addition to these streamlets, the packet of information 103 maycontain a table of contents TOC, informing the user of the receivingdevice 107 of what streaming content is available for viewing within thepacket of information 103. The table of contents TOC, like thestreamlets 1, 2, 3, 4, may be included in each rotation of the packet ofinformation 103.

By way of example, a digital broadcast signal may be a modulatedradiation signal transmitted from a broadcast transmitter 105, e.g., inthe form of an over-the-air broadcast, such as by a radio-frequencyelectromagnetic wave signal. Alternatively, embodiments of the inventionmay be used in conjunction with digital broadcasts transmitted overmedia such as cable (e.g., coaxial cable), optical fiber, or satellitetransmission.

By way of example, the digital broadcast signal may be configured inaccordance with a digital broadcast standard.

Examples of digital broadcast standards include, but are not limited to,the Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) family of standards maintained inEurope and Australia, the Advanced Television Standards Committee (ATSC)family of standards developed for use in the United States and Canada,the Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting (ISDB) family of standardsdeveloped for use in Japan, and the Digital Multimedia Broadcasting(DMB) standard used in South Korea.

The DVB family of standards includes the DVB-S and DVB-S2 standards forsatellite television, the DVB-T and DVB-T2 standards for terrestrialtelevision, the DVB-C standard for cable televisions, the DVB-H standardfor mobile television, and other DVB standards, which have been or maybe developed. The ATSC family of standards includes the ATSC standardfor terrestrial television broadcasts and the ATSC M/H standard forbroadcasts to mobile and handheld devices. The IDSB family of standardsincludes the ISDB-S, ISDB-T, and ISDB-C standards, which were developedfor satellite, terrestrial, and cable television respectively.

By way of example, and not by way of limitation, the digital broadcastsignal may be configured according to the ATSC or ATSC-M/H standards.The ATSC standard is described in detail, e.g., in “ATSC DigitalTelevision Standard Part 1—Digital Television System” (A/53, Part1:2007), “ATSC Digital Television Standard Part 2—RF/Transmission SystemCharacteristics” (A/53, Part 2:2007), and “ATSC Digital TelevisionStandard Part 3—Service Multiplex and Transport SubsystemCharacteristics” (A/53, Part 3, 2007), the disclosures of all three ofwhich are incorporated herein by reference. The ATSC Data BroadcastStandard is described, e.g., in (ATSC Recommended Practice:Implementation Guidelines for the ATSC Data Broadcast Standard (Doc.A/90)”, which is incorporated herein by reference.

The user of the receiving device 107 may receive these broadcast packetsof information 103 through an antenna 129. The receiving device maycontain in addition to an antenna 129: a tuning device 109, a processor111, a memory 113, a storage device 119, a backchannel communicationlink 121, and a display device 123. The digital broadcast receivingdevice 107 may be any type of device capable of receiving and utilizingthe digital broadcast signal. By way of example, the digital broadcastreceiving device 107 may be a digital television set, digital radioreceiver, personal computer, laptop computer, or a mobile or handhelddevice such as a cellular telephone, mobile Internet device, or mobiledigital television receiver. Furthermore, the term digital broadcastreceiving device encompasses “digital media receivers”, GPS devices,game consoles, portable game devices, home, mobile or device securitysystems, and any combination thereof and including other devices forwhich the present invention may be coupled to provide command andcontrol.

The receiving device 107 may include a digital broadcast tuning device109 and a decoder 131. The tuning device 109 may be coupled to theantenna 129 that receives the digital broadcast signal. The tuningdevice 109 may select one or more particular frequencies from among thevarious signals that are picked up by the antenna 129. The decoder 131may then extract the data from the digital broadcast signal and processit. By way of example, the tuning device 109 and decoder 131 may providethe following functions: demodulation, transport stream demultiplexing,decompression, error correction, analog-to-digital conversion, AVsynchronization, and media reformatting. As used herein, demodulationrefers to the process of transforming the received digital broadcastsignal into a usable signal from which data may be extracted and/or fromwhich quality images and sound may be produced.

Transport stream demultiplexing may be implemented, e.g., where multipleinformation packets 103 are combined and then transmitted from oneantenna source to create over the air broadcasts. The decoder 131 mayimplement decompression if the information packet 103 contains data incompressed form. The tuning device 109 may decompress such data, e.g.,by unpacking compressed packets of digital data to their original size.

The decoder 131 may also implement error correction to make sure thatany data that is missing from the received broadcast signal can becorrected. For instance, sometimes interference or a poor-quality signalwill cause the loss of data information that the tuning device 109receives. In such cases, the decoder 131 may perform a number of checksand repair data.

The decoder 131 may implement AV synchronization to coordinate audio andvideo signals being displayed on the display 123 in proper time. AVsynchronization ensures that the audio does not lag behind the videothat is being displayed on the display 123 or vice versa, so that bothaudio and video are in sync. Media reformatting allows the display 123to properly display video images using the data extracted from thedigital broadcast signal. Media reformatting is important because theformatting of images on certain displays may differ significantlyaccording to the technology employed. For example, some televisionsutilize an interlaced picture, whereas others utilize a progressive-scanpicture.

The information associated with the streamlets 1, 2, 3, 4 of the packetof information 103 may be displayed on the video display 123. By way ofexample, and not by way of limitation, the streamlets 1, 2, 3, 4, maycontain video clips and the display 123 may be any suitable video and/oraudio-visual display compatible with the digital broadcast signal. Byway of example, and not by way of limitation, the display 123 mayinclude a video monitor, such as a cathode ray tube (CRT), plasmadisplay, liquid crystal display (LCD) or an organic light-emitting diode(OLED) display. In addition, the display 123 may include one or moredevices for generating audio, e.g., one or more speakers.

The processor 111 may be configured to allow the user of the receivingdevice 107 to communicate with the receiving device 107. Furthermore,the processor may be configured to run software applications, andoptionally, an operating system.

The memory 113 may store applications and data for use by the processor111. The memory 113 may implement both a buffer 115 and a cache 117.Alternatively, the cache 113 and buffer 115 may be implemented byseparate components. The buffer 115 is configured to process dataimmediately as it is received, whereas the cache 117 is configured tostore data until the processor 111 or user decides to use the data. Thememory 113 may be in the form of an integrated circuit, e.g., RAM, DRAM,ROM, and the like. A computer program may be stored in the memory 113 inthe form of instructions that can be executed on the processor 111.

The receiving device 107 may further include a fast data storage device119 such as a hard disk drive that provides non-volatile storage forapplications and data. The fast storage device 119 may be used fortemporary of long-term storage of files retrieved from a slower datastorage device. By way of example, the storage device 119 may be, e.g.,a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, Blu-Ray, HD-DVD, UMD, or other optical storagedevices.

Lastly, the receiving device 107 may implement a backchannelcommunication link 121 that allows information to be sent from thereceiving device 107 to a remote data stream source (e.g. a web serverfor a website or other network source). In some embodiments, thereceiving device 107 may implement a back channel to the broadcasterthrough a digital broadcast signal transmitted from the receiving device107 and antenna 129, e.g., using a digital broadcast, multicast orunicast capability built into the tuning device 109. Alternatively, theback channel may be implemented through the backchannel communicationlink 121 by some other mode of communication such as wireless telephony,wireless Internet, cable, optical fiber, computer network (e.g.,Ethernet) link, and the like. The back channel may also be used toreceive data from a remote data stream source 125.

Once the digital broadcast signal has been picked up by the antenna 129and decoded by the decoder 131, the receiving device 107 can begin toprocess the streamlets 1, 2, 3, 4 contained in the information packet103. When the rotation of streamlets 1, 2, 3, 4 in the packet ofinformation 103 reaches the table of contents TOC, the receiving devicemay store this information in the memory 113 or cache 117. The device107 may be programmed to notify the user of which streamlets 1, 2, 3, 4are being broadcast in the packet of information 103, e.g., via amessage presented with the display 123. At this point, the processor 111may request the tuning device 109 to obtain additional broadcast signalswith updated packets of information 103, such that the user of thereceiving device 107 is updated with the latest streamlets 1, 2, 3, 4 atall times.

The user of the receiving device 107 can then select which streamlet 1,2, 3, 4 to display on the video display 123. Once on of the streamlets1, 2, 3, 4 has been selected, the data is sent to the memory 113'sbuffer 115 to be immediately processed and displayed on the videodisplay 123. As soon as the selected streamlet begins to be displayed,the receiving device 107 may communicate with a data stream source 125through the backchannel communication link 121 to request the remainingdata for the full data stream associated with the streamlet that wasselected. The data stream source 125 has access to full versions of datastreams 127 associated with streamlets 1, 2, 3, 4. In addition tosending a request to the data stream source 125 through the backchannelcommunication link 121, the receiving device 107 may also send anindication of the time duration of the selected streamlet 1, 2, 3, 4.This indication allows the data stream source 125 to offset the fullstream associated with the streamlet 1, 2, 3, 4 by the duration of thestreamlet 1, 2, 3, 4. This allows the user of the receiving device 107to receive the full data streams associated with the streamlets withoutperceiving any delay associated with having to retrieve the full datastream from the remote data stream source 125 via the backchannelcommunication link 121.

The table of contents TOC that is stored in the cache 117 may have anexpiration time. The device 107 may be programmed to delete the table ofcontents TOC from the cache 117 once the expiration time has transpired.Once the table of contents TOC has expired, the user of the receivingdevice 107 may request the tuning device 109 to obtain additionalbroadcast signals with updated versions of the packet of information103. Furthermore, the receiving device 107 may be configured to workwith a motion sensor 132, such as an accelerometer, gyroscope, lasergyroscope or tilt sensor that is coupled to the processor 111. By way ofexample, and not by way of limitation, the motion sensor 132 may bephysically attached to a case or housing that contains other componentsof the device 107. The processor may be programmed to interpret signalsfrom the motion sensor 132 in such a way as to determine when device 107has been picked up and interpret this as a signal to initiate receipt ofupdated packets of information 103. Once the table of contents TOC hasexpired and been deleted from the memory 113's cache 117, the user mayinitiate the tuning device 109 to receive updated packets of information103 in response to a signal generated by the motion sensor 132 when theuser picks up the device or otherwise actively grabs it.

In some embodiments, the data stream source 125 may communicate with thebroadcaster 101 and indicate to the broadcaster which data streams weremost often requested. This allows the broadcaster 101 to update thepackets of information 103 such that they contain the most updatedversion of the streamlets.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram illustrating the process of combined broadcastand backchannel delivery of streaming content from the perspective ofthe percipient user of the receiving device. Initially the receivingdevice must configure the tuning device to receive broadcast signalsfrom a broadcast tower as indicated at 201. This can be done in multipleways. The user may directly communicate with the receiving device andrequest that the tuning device be configured to receive broadcastsignals from the broadcast tower. The receiving device may also beprogrammed to continuously receive broadcast signals from a broadcasttower based on a timing mechanism, such that the tuner looks for updatedbroadcast signals every given segment of time. Alternatively, the tuningdevice can be configured to respond to motion, as described above. Forexample, an idle receiving device may initiate contact with a broadcasttower when the user of the device picks it up.

Once the tuning device has been configured to receive broadcast signalsfrom the broadcast tower, the receiving device may to receive the packetof information containing a table of contents and streamlets asindicated at 203. The streamlets are sent to the user in a rotation,such that no streamlet needs to be stored in the receiving device'smemory. As discussed above, the packets of information also contain atable of contents, which is cached in the receiving device's memory suchthat the user has a catalog of what video streamlets are available toview as indicated at 205. The table of contents may have an associatedexpiration time, such that once this time has expired the tuningmechanism of the receiving device may automatically configure itself toreceive updated broadcast signals from a broadcast tower.

The user of the receiving device may then select a streamlet to watchfrom the packet of information as indicated at 207. The user may use thetable of contents to decide which streamlet to select or may wait foreach streamlet to be sent to the receiving device via the broadcasttower 105 before selecting a streamlet to view. If, as indicated at 217,the user chooses not to select a streamlet to view from the particularpacket of information 103, the receiving device may tune the device inorder to receive an updated version of the packet of information.

As soon as the user has selected a streamlet to view, the receiving maytune in to the broadcast tower 105 to receive the entire streamlet asindicted at 209. The streamlet may be stored in the buffer 115 anddisplayed with the display 123. Simultaneously, the receiving device 107may communicate with the data stream source 125 to receive the remainingdata stream associated with the streamlet as indicated at 211. Thedevice 107 may automatically send a request to the data stream source125 indicating which data stream is desired. In addition, the device 107may send an indication of the offset of the data stream needed tocomplete the entire video clip. The data stream source 125 processesthis information, and sends the remaining data stream necessary tocomplete the video clip.

The receiving device receives the remaining data stream necessary tocomplete the video clip by placing this data in the buffer of thereceiving device's memory as indicated at 213. The receiving device 107may then convert the remaining data stream into a form compatible withpresentation on the display 123. The remaining data stream may then bedisplayed to the user as indicated at 215. The user of the receivingdevice 107 may thus watch an entire video clip through the combinedbroadcast and backchannel delivery of the streaming content. The userdoes not have to wait for the remaining data to be received from aremote source, and then watch the remaining stream associated with theinitial streamlet. Instead, the user can watch the entire video clipwithout pause because as the initial streamlet is being presented, thereceiving device may obtaining at least part of the remaining portion ofthe video clip from a data stream source, such that as soon as thestreamlet ends, a portion of the remaining stream is ready to bedisplayed to the user.

According to embodiments of the present invention, there are a number ofways in which the packet of information 103 may be compiled forbroadcast. Such compilation may be done in accordance with suitableconfigured computer program instructions. FIG. 3A is a diagramillustrating an example of a packet of information 301 to be sent by thebroadcaster 101 via a broadcast transmitter. In this example, the packetof information 301 is sent through a rotational scheme in which all ofstreamlet 1 is sent before all of streamlet 2, and so on, with therotation repeating once all streamlets 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and the table ofcontents TOC have been broadcast. At the end of each rotation ofstreamlets, a device may receive and store the table of contents TOC,which can be stored in the cache so that the user of the receivingdevice may access it at any time. The user may then select a streamlet1, 2, 3, 4, 5 to view at any time after receiving any portion of thepacket of information from the broadcaster. The streamlets 1, 2, 3, 4, 5and table of contents TOC each have the same periodicity, so that eachone repeats after an equal interval of time.

FIG. 3B is a diagram illustrating another example of a packet ofinformation 303 to be sent by the broadcaster to the percipient user ofthe receiving device via a broadcast tower. In this example, thestreamlets that make up the packet of information 303 are broken downinto portions that are broadcast sequentially. The packet of information303 is sent through an interleaving scheme in which a portion of eachstreamlet 1 _(A), 2 _(A), 3 _(A), 4 _(A) is sent in order, followed by atable of contents TOC, followed by a subsequent portion of eachstreamlet 1 _(B), 2 _(B), 3 _(B), 4 _(B). The user of the percipientdevice may send these portions of streamlets directly to the buffer ofthe device's memory to be immediately processed, or may send theseportions of streamlets to the memory's cache to be temporarily storedand processed at a later time. Note that the table of contents TOC has ashorter period than the periodicity of each individual streamlet 1, 2,3, 4 because the streamlets are broadcast in portions.

FIG. 3C is a diagram illustrating a third example of a packet ofinformation to be sent by the broadcaster to the percipient user of thereceiving device via a broadcast tower. This packet of information 305is sent through a tiered scheme in which certain streamlets 1, 2, 3, 4(e.g. most popular video clips) are sent with a shorter periodicity thanother streamlets A, B, etc. (e.g. less popular video clips/advertisements). By creating a tiered scheme, the user is presented morepopular data streams at a higher frequency than less popular datastreams. Note that the table of contents TOC is still being sent at aperiodicity equal to the most popular data stream.

While the above is a complete description of the preferred embodiment ofthe present invention, it is possible to use various alternatives,modifications and equivalents. Therefore, the scope of the presentinvention should be determined not with reference to the abovedescription but should, instead, be determined with reference to theappended claims, along with their full scope of equivalents. Any featuredescribed herein, whether preferred or not, may be combined with anyother feature described herein, whether preferred or not. In the claimsthat follow, the indefinite article “A”, or “An” refers to a quantity ofone or more of the item following the article, except where expresslystated otherwise. The appended claims are not to be interpreted asincluding means-plus-function limitations, unless such a limitation isexplicitly recited in a given claim using the phrase “means for”.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method, comprising: a) selecting a desiredstreamlet from a packet of information from a broadcast signalcontaining one or more streamlets and a table of contents associatedwith the streamlets, wherein the table of contents includes informationidentifying what content is available within the packet of information,wherein each said streamlet is an ordered grouping of multiple datapackets that correspond to a presentable portion of a larger unit ofstreaming data that is associated with the streamlet; b) presenting thedesired streamlet with a display associated with the receiving device;c) requesting a remainder of the larger unit of streaming dataassociated with the desired streamlet by the receiving device from adata stream source separate from the broadcast source while the desiredstreamlet is being presented; d) receiving the remainder of the largerunit of streaming data associated with the desired streamlet via abackchannel from the data stream source while the desired streamlet isbeing presented, wherein the backchannel is implemented by a mode ofcommunication other than a broadcast signal from a broadcast source thattransmitted the packet of information; and e) presenting the remainderof the larger unit of streaming data associated with the desiredstreamlet with a display associated with the receiving device.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, wherein c) includes requesting the remainder of thedata stream associated with the desired streamlet through thebackchannel.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising before a)storing the information packet in a memory associated with the receivingdevice.
 4. The method of claim 1 wherein the broadcast signal is adigital broadcast signal.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the packetof information includes two or more streamlets.
 6. The method of claim5, wherein the information included in the table of contents identifieswhat content is available in each of the two or more streamlets.
 7. Themethod of claim 6, wherein a) includes selecting the desired streamletfrom among the two or more streamlets using the information in the tableof contents.
 8. An apparatus for receiving streaming content,comprising: a computer processor; a memory coupled to the processor; abackchannel communication link coupled to the processor; and a set ofcomputer executable instructions that when executed by the processorcause the receiving device to implement a method for receiving streamingcontent, the method comprising: a) selecting a desired streamlet from apacket of information from a broadcast signal containing one or morestreamlets and a table of contents associated with the streamlets,wherein the table of contents includes information identifying whatcontent is available within the packet of information, wherein each saidstreamlet is an ordered grouping of multiple data packets thatcorrespond to a presentable portion of a larger unit of streaming datathat is associated with the streamlet; b) presenting the desiredstreamlet with a display coupled to the processor; c) requesting aremainder of the larger unit of streaming data associated with thedesired streamlet by the receiving apparatus from a data stream sourceseparate from the broadcast source while the desired streamlet is beingpresented; d) receiving the remainder of the larger unit of streamingdata associated with the desired streamlet through the backchannelcommunication link from the data stream source while the desiredstreamlet is being presented, wherein the backchannel is implemented bya mode of communication other than a broadcast signal from the broadcastsource; and e) presenting the remainder of the larger unit of streamingdata associated with the desired streamlet with the display.
 9. Theapparatus of claim 8, wherein the information packet is stored in thememory.
 10. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising a motion sensorcoupled to the processor, wherein the apparatus is configured to receivean updated packet of information in response to a trigger signal fromthe motion sensor.
 11. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising atuning device coupled to the processor.
 12. The apparatus of claim 11,wherein the tuning device is configured to receive a digital broadcastsignal.
 13. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the packet of informationincludes two or more streamlets.
 14. The apparatus of claim 13, whereinthe information included in the table of contents identifies whatcontent is available in each of the two or more streamlets.
 15. Theapparatus of claim 14, wherein b) includes selecting the desiredstreamlet from among the two or more streamlets using the information inthe table of contents.
 16. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprisingthe display coupled to the processor.
 17. A method for distributingstreaming content, comprising: a) receiving or generating a packet ofinformation containing one or more streamlets and a table of contentsassociated with the streamlets, wherein the table of contents identifiescontent available within the packet of information, wherein each of theone or more streamlets comprises a portion of a corresponding one ormore larger data streams; and b) broadcasting the packet of informationin the form of a digital broadcast signal.
 18. The method of claim 17,wherein the table of contents includes information usable by a broadcastreceiving device to obtain a data stream associated with one or more ofthe streamlets in the data packet.
 19. The method of claim 17 wherein atleast one streamlet includes information usable by a broadcast receivingdevice to obtain a data stream associated with at least one streamlet.20. The method of claim 17 wherein a) includes broadcasting the packetof information via a rotational scheme wherein an entire streamlet ofthe packet is broadcast before a subsequent streamlet of the packet isbroadcast.
 21. The method of claim 20 the packet of information isbroadcast repetitively.
 22. The method of claim 17, wherein a) includesbroadcasting the packet of information via an interweaving schemewherein initial portions of each streamlet in the packet of informationare broadcast in order, followed by the table of contents, followed bysubsequent portions of each of the streamlets, followed again by thetable of contents.
 23. The method of claim 22 wherein broadcast of thepacket of information according to the interweaving scheme repeats aftera last portion of each individual streamlet has been broadcast.
 24. Themethod of claim 17, wherein a) includes broadcasting the packet ofinformation via a tiered scheme, wherein the streamlets in the packet ofinformation are broadcast at a repetition rate based on a tieredprioritization, wherein streamlets of a lower priority are sent at alonger periodicity than streamlets of a higher priority.
 25. The methodof claim 24 wherein the packet of information repeats itself after alast streamlet in the packet and the table of contents have beenbroadcast.
 26. The method of claim 17, wherein a) includes broadcastingthe table of contents with an expiration, wherein the expiration informsa receiving device to receive an updated packet of information upon theexpiration of the table of contents.
 27. A digital broadcast system,comprising: a) broadcaster configured to receive or generate a packet ofinformation containing one or more streamlets and a table of contentsassociated with the streamlets, wherein the table of contents identifiescontent available within the packet of information, wherein each of theone or more streamlets comprises a portion of a corresponding one ormore larger data streams; and b) a transmitter configured to broadcastthe packet of information in the form of a digital broadcast signal. 28.The system of claim 27, wherein the table of contents includesinformation usable by a broadcast receiving device to obtain a datastream associated with one or more of the streamlets in the data packet.29. The system of claim 27, wherein at least one streamlet includesinformation usable by a broadcast receiving device to obtain a datastream associated with at least one streamlet.
 30. The system of claim27, wherein the transmitter is configured to broadcast the packet ofinformation via a rotational scheme wherein an entire streamlet of thepacket is broadcast before a subsequent streamlet of the packet isbroadcast.
 31. The system of claim 27, wherein the transmitter isconfigured to broadcast the packet of information via an interweavingscheme wherein portions of each streamlet in the packet of informationare broadcast in order, followed by the table of contents, followed bysubsequent portions of the individual streamlets, followed again by thetable of contents, until each streamlet has been received by the user infull.
 32. The system of claim 27, wherein the transmitter is configuredto broadcast the packet of information via a tiered scheme, wherein thestreamlets in the packet of information are broadcast at a repetitionrate based on a tiered prioritization, wherein streamlets of a lowerpriority are sent at a longer periodicity than streamlets of a higherpriority.
 33. The system of claim 27, wherein the table of contentsincludes an expiration, wherein the expiration informs a receivingdevice to receive an updated packet of information upon the expirationof the table of contents.